Testimony on discrimination #5

Maité and the members of her group were raided without a search warrant and were subjected to mental and physical abuse, including the children. She was jailed for months on unproven charges.

I founded Horus, an agrarian community in Ardèche. Our specialty is a particular form of organic farming. We grow giant vegetables without fertilizers. It is an ancient method, which has been used and proven over 6,000 years. The trouble started as soon as we, naively, spoke out publicly about this method of farming, saying, « In the end, if one applies our method, all French agriculture can forego the use of fertilizers and pesticides. »

One morning, in September 1991, at 10 a.m., the police entered my private property, with no search warrant. They were accompanied by some representatives of the anti-cuit group ADFI from Aix-en-Provence, Saint-Etienne, Lyons and Grenoble, with people they said were our « grandparents » – but whom none of us knew. The media also was present, cameras in their hands, to « just come and talk with us, » or so they said. During this encounter, I was assaulted both verbally and physically while the police just turned their faces away and pretended not to see.

A TV report in the show Envoyé Spécial had ignited this whole situation. The journalist who was responsible for this, a married man, had been seeing a woman from our community for years. He also took part in the children’s theatrical plays. One day he told us that in order to change any negative opinions people might have about us, he would make a film to show exactly what we were doing. Then on January 4, 1996, we saw the show: The film was completely manipulated and falsified to make us look bad – all the scenes had been set up and filmed to give the image of a dangerous cuit. We were surprised and shocked. We had been welcoming this man in our community for many years. He knew many of us. Just to give one example of his lies, he asked the children to play in a field and then filmed them behind a fente of barbed wire to make it look like they were being restrained.

We went through a nightmare, especially where the children were concerned. The police came to question us and to see whether the children were in good health, implying that they may have been victims of sexual abuse. There was a mother with us who was a midwife. Even though she was breast-feeding her baby, they forcibly took it away from her, without telling her where they were taking it. She searched desperately for her child for a week. The police also seized and took away records and files from many scientists who were doing research on new agricultural techniques.

I myself was kept in jail for eight months. I was accused of non-assistance to a person in
danger and of practice of illegal medicine, when in fact I had never practiced medicine in
any way. I was also sentenced for opening a school that never existed. The parents in our

group had simply taken their children out of the regular schools and were home­schooling them, which is in no way against the law.

One of our members was an engineer and a teacher with a doctorate. He was forced to leave his job due to his belonging to a so-called « cuit. » He was given no opportunity to reply to the charges or defend himself. The sentence has now been canceled, but he has lost his job for good. He no longer has any money nor a source of income, and yet he has four children to take care of.

Marseilles, March 29, 2000Testimony#14

Doctor Juliette B. is a medical doctor. She has been debarred for life from the French Medical Association.

I am trained in acupuncture, homeopathy, sophrology, tropical medicine, hygiene and preventive medicine. Our association was a group of friends, scientists, researchers and physicians, whose goal was to research solutions to pollution and hunger in the world.

One day a little boy from our group developed a respiratory problem. The doctor who examined him diagnosed Lyme’s disease, which is transmitted by ticks, and had him sent to the hospital. A week later I was accused of failure to vaccinate the child, but I had in fact vaccinated him myself and he had a valid Diphtheria / Tetanus / Poliomyelitis vaccination certificate. The newspaper ran an article about me, and claimed that the child had died of tetanus—but the child is in very good health now and he obviously never had tetanus.

I was summoned before the Council of the Medical Association for non-vaccination and they debarred me from the Association. Then I was charged with failure to render assistance to a person in danger, forgery and use of forged documents. All this when the child had been normally vaccinated, the certificate was genuine, and there was no failure to render assistance to a person in danger since the child was rushed to the hospital immediately, as soon as his breathing problem occurred.

Alter this incident, a force of about 200 policemen raided our center at 6am. They carried out simultaneous raids on other locations where we had friends. We were afraid because they were all holding submachine guns. They forcibly separated the children from their parents and took them to the DDASS (Social Services department) for mandatory examinations. The children were thoroughly examined from head to foot, and the girls were subject to anal and vaginal examinations in front of the policemen. You can imagine the psychological trauma.

The harassment did not stop. Every pretext, was used against us. The many positive testimonies we had from people who worked with our group were never taken into account. Charges were made and never withdrawn. In the tribunal some important letters disappeared, especially a letter from the child’s file written by the physician who sent the child to the hospital. It clearly established the diagnosis of Lyme’s disease. As soon as we asked for this letter it disappeared. When we complained we were treated as if we were crazy. They said, and wrote, that the letter never existed! By chance, our lawyer, our family and other persons had seen that letter. The parents of the child, disgusted, decided to leave French territory until that letter reappears as they no longer trust the French justice system. They are accused of being irresponsible parents who did not take good care of their children and who put them in a cuit. They face six years in prison if they corne back. We were all threatened with death!

One night, at 5 PM, we found journalists freezing in their car. One of them told us his boss had asked him to be there because, with the shock we had experienced, we were at risk, we might commit mass suicide. They wanted to be there for the scoop… We breed chicken on our farm and we use a small infrared lamp that turns on automatically at about 3 AM when the temperature gets too cold. When the journalists saw this light they thought we were setting fires to kill ourselves! They were so scared they did not dare get out of their car! That was actually funny.

I have already spent seven-and-a-half months in prison, first as a defendant and then as a convict. Since my case is still in the Supreme Court I may have to spend another year in prison although I have done nothing wrong professionally or as a citizen. No official complaint has been lodged—all this is based on rumors. I believe this has been done intentionally by certain anti-cuit groups bent on destroying us. We were a small group, not international, the perfect target.

I asked for an appeal before the State Council, But the Medical Association refused, saying there were no grounds for an appeal. I am therefore debarred for life. Anyway, as my colleague Dr. Scohy said, I am not so unhappy to be excluded from that cuit!

Paris 3, 2000 Testimony#15

Héléna is a member of an organization with two million members worldwide. In France, many of its 4,000 French members have been harassed, defamed, and prevented from working.

Sukyo Mahikari bas existed in Japan for 40 years, in France for 28 years.

A 1996 French parliamentary report labeled us an « oriental healing cuit. » Information in the report was false and self-contradictory. At one point it said we are a sectarian movement with 50 to 500 members, then a few pages later it stated we had 15,000 members.

After the report was published, false articles about us started to appear in the press. We were always denied the right to respond.

The police raided one of our centers in Normandy. They seized the accounts books and took sacred objects from the home of the local leader. The leaders were placed under close watch for 24 hours and then released as the police could find no wrongdoing.

In 1998 we were subjected to a tax audit. The auditor could not tax us as a profitable enterprise so he tried to apply a 60% tax to our donations, which would have crippled us.

Many of our members are excluded from work. Two nurses had their licences revoked because they belong to a « cuit. » One member was fired when social workers noticed a Japanese altar in her bedroom. A member who was director of programming for a radio station in Martinique was fired for belonging to our movement.

In 1999 we were named in press articles as part of an « apocalyptic cuits » campaign. The police watched our centers in Guadeloupe and around Paris. They made confusing statements that we had a « complicated survival apparatus » while at the saine time implying we were intent on suicide.

Paris 3, 2000 Testimony#16

Dominique and his wife were headmasters of a private school which they were forced to closed down.

A journalist from VSD (a national magazine) came to do an article on our school. His article was full of praise but he denounced the fact that my companion and I were former members of the Raël movement.

This prompted a tax audit and a visit from an inspector known as the « Mr. Cult » of the National Éducation Ministry. He carried out a raid-like search of the classrooms, going through the children’s and teachers’ bags, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Then he noticed a big painting the children had done on a classroom wall. The painting stopped at the Revolution simply because they did not have time to go further. The inspector started fantasizing that « a school from the Rabi movement » was an elitist school based on « geniocracy. » According to him the drawing stopped at the Revolution because we refused to accept democracy. The TV stations had been informed of the inspector’s visit and the cameras were waiting outside. Many articles appeared in the newspapers. The parents got scared and our student numbers dwindled from around 100 down to 50.

Some parents continued to support us as they believed in what we were doing, but eventually we were forced to file bankruptcy. All the investors in the school lost their money, and my companion and myself are in debt as we cosigned for the loans.

Our school was doing really well with good results on the children, but we were destroyed because we belonged long ago to the Raël movement.

Paris 3, 2000 Testimony#17

Christian is a psycho-sociologist and manager of a training company. He has lost many contracts.

As a psycho-sociologist, I’ve been manager of a training organization for about 15 years. My first « mistake » was to teach various psychological disciplines, in particular PNL – neuro-linguistic programming- which is sometimes labeled a cuit. In my seminars for large companies and government departments, I often speak about spirituality. However I’ve never belonged to any spiritual, religious, or mystical organization.

In 1994, I started a political movement which presented a list of candidates for the European elections to defend freedom of thought and freedom of choice over healing methods. This must have upset some government officiais: The June 1999 Parliamentary report called « Cuits and Money » listed my company as a branch of Scientology although I’ve never had any relationship whatsoever with Scientology.

In 1996, my company was prosperous with a turnover of a Little more than 6 million francs. Today we have trouble making half this figure as I have to spend time and effort handling suspicions and questions. As a result I’ve lost several contracts over the last few months.

One of my associates went to ask Mrs. Jeanine Tavernier [from ADFI] for a ‘good cuit’ certificate to have the right to work. She said : « Ah, don’t ask me for any documents …! » That is where we stand today.

Today as an educator, if you want to work for big European or French companies which have read the parliamentary report « Cuits and Money », you have to ask ADFI for a certificate of good behavior.

Paris 3, 2000 Testimony#18

Claude’s organization was raided, he was subjected to media attacks and fired from his job.

I was employed as a manager at a spiritual research establishment named La Maison de Jean (Jean’s House). I was also the manager of another company. These were both volunteer activities and I received no salary from either. I supported myself by working as a management executive in a training organization.

I had a difference of opinion with a friend. She had never been a member of the establishment. The details of our disagreement are too lengthy to go into here, but suffice it to say that the situation became worse and she wanted to do something which would cause trouble for us. As our establishment pertained to spiritual matters, and there is so much bad press in France right now about this kind of thing, she thought it would be smart to accuse us of being a cult and went to see ADFI and the police department as well as some of our associates with the intention of destroying our organization.

Several complaints were made at the magistrates’ court and civil proceedings were started against the president of our organization, but we had done nothing illegal and so there was no result. We even tried to make contact with ADFI so that we might know what we had been accused of, but each time they refused to have communication with us.

Our enemies even denounced us to the police about completely invented operations. Though false, this was enough to start an investigation. One morning, the police came to our offices, and also searched our private homes. I was taken from my workplace and held for 48 hours. Again, as I mentioned previously, I am a management executive. Yet, I was taken with some colleagues to the Court of Justice in Paris where we spent a night underground, with cockroaches and other creatures!

In the meantime, there had been a raid of our premises and systematic interrogation of other members of our organization and the people connected to us. At first, the police approached these people as if they were the « victims » of our organization and when they refused to state this or to recognize things which did not exist, the police said that they must be our « accomplices. » The technique is simple: the people connected are either victims, or they are accomplices.

The organization’s and the company’s accounts have been suspended leading to the dismissal of our employees. During the raid, the police seized invoices addressed to our clients. They communicated these details to our detractors who then contacted our clients and told them that we are a cuit. If the police had not given out these details, we would not have had to endure what we did. Following this, tax audits were conducted on every one of the individuals involved and the legal entities.

When the police saw that there was no reaction in the company where I was working,
they sent four inspectors – the big show – to question my boss and to ask if by any chance
I had proselytized in the company. My boss held on for one month and when the police

found out that I still had not left, they threatened to kick up a scandai for the director. The police did everything they could to have me fired. As a result, I found myself with no job and actually with no career as I am self-educated and had worked my way up in the company to a middle management position.

I was no longer able to pay the mortgage on my flat and had to sell it. I have been looking for a job, but no one will employ me as the police have taken the necessary steps to make it known that I had been reproached by them.

In 1995, a fire broke out in our premises. The insurance regarded it as a natural disaster and agreed to pay compensation without any problem. Then in 1996, a parliamentary report was published in which we were listed. Alter this, the insurance company refused to pay for the fire and lodged a civil complaint. There was another raid, this time in our new premises, with more arrests under surveillance, for a fire which we had no responsibility for. The final result was that the case was dismissed, but the other case which we have against the insurance company for the payment of the insurance for the 1995 fire is still unresolved and the only reason given is: « They are a cuit, they set their own premises on fire. »

From the media, we have received ail the usual cliches and defamation typically used against spiritual minorities. The TV channel Canal + dragged us in the mud and there was nothing we could do about it. We currently have a court case going on against FR 3 (TV channel) for slander and false testimony.

CAP Liberté de Conscience, a French NGO created in 2000 dedicated to the respect of the Right of Freedom of Religion and Belief. CAP LC is expert since now 20 years, in religious minorities’ discriminations in France and Europe. CAP Liberté de Conscience organizes events, conferences, meetings to unite minority religions to counter discrimination mainly in France but also in Europe and worldwide.